Blog

It's time for another awesome product review – and GIVEAWAY – courtesy of SweatPink!

Disclosure: I received a free 3-month subscription to Grokker, but all of the opinions expressed are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Grokker is a community and wellness resource for busy people. Just like carrying a book around in your purse makes you more likely to take advantage of down time, these videos can help you create “wellness breaks” to form habits around healthy living.

The site is broken down into three major categories of videos: yoga, fitness, and cooking. In addition, there are blogs, Q&As, and forums as places to read, learn and share.

Cooking

As a dietitian, my first thought was to jump to the part on food – duh! I enjoyed perusing the cooking videos, including a bunch on techniques. All too often I talk to clients who have grown up as foodies, but have no idea how to cook. This space is for them! You can find short videos on topics like how to pick a knife, how to pair food and wine, plating, cutting a whole chicken, etc. Lots of great tips and tools to become a better cook.

Not only that, but there are videos on all types of cuisine. It’s like watching short segments on the Food Network on-demand. I loved checking out the Asian and British recipes – they went beyond just the typical American versions of curries and stir fries, and that British food actually looked enticing (who knew?). I also saw a few videos on making homemade cheese – think feta, goat and blue.

See the variety of videos available - 13 pages worth! And each one is a short time commitment.

Fitness

If you haven’t tried a workout website or subscription service in awhile, I want to assure you that these are not Jane Fonda aerobics. From barre and dance workouts to the Ultimate Mud Runner series to a 7-min sculpting series, these videos are on-trend, functional, and get the job done. Seriously, even you can find 7 minutes a day to workout.

The videos are mostly on the shorter side – under 30 minutes. So if you were looking for a longer workout, you’d have to do more than one video. However, there are plenty to mix and match.

Check out examples of sports conditioning collections.

Yoga

This is actually where I spent most of my time on the site. It’s very ironic, since I’m not a huge yogi. That’s the understatement of the year. I’ve never enjoyed yoga, and at the risk of sounding crazy, it’s always stressed me out.

But a few things have been coming together in my life lately. First, the marathon training. I knew that my legs and hips were tighter than they should be, and that yoga is FANTASTIC for runners. I’ve been resistant towards it for a long time, but decided to check out a few videos that were specific to runners.

The other thing that has been catching up with me is just the stress of life. Our move to Chicago and spending time working with a start-up company brought on way more stress than I had realized. I was talking to one of my new health care professionals who mentioned that I needed to be doing calm stress relieving activities. Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks – running is my major stress reliever, and that is pretty active and brings with it a different type of stress on my body.

So I’ve been exploring stress relief techniques that are a little quieter. I’ve not mastered them, yet, but I’m getting better at just being. The yoga videos have helped me out in that realm.

A sample of the videos by Ashleigh Sergeant, one of the yoga experts.

I’m excited to share with you my favorite video – yoga for opening up those hips. Great for my running friends, or for anyone who works out but has a desk job. One thing that I really liked was all of the reminders on form. When you do workout videos at home, it’s often hard to self-correct your form. Apparently I made all the obvious mistakes, because Ashleigh called me out on all of them. Also, do not be alarmed, but Ashleigh is definitely Zooey Deschanel’s doppelgänger.

Final Thoughts

One thing that was noticeably missing for me was with the nutrition side of things – to the best of my digging around, I didn’t see any dietitians participating on the site. So while the cooking videos were great, there wasn’t much for someone to understand how it all fits together in their life.

Grokker is a great tool for people looking to incorporate wellness habits in their lives. If you have the space at home, and the right equipment (some require, some don’t), I highly recommend the workouts. Another bonus? You can take the video with you to the gym and use their equipment to get in the workout. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do at the gym, or to change up your routine without paying for a personal trainer. This is definitely a more affordable option!

Now it’s your turn! One lucky reader will receive a voucher code for a free 3-month trial of Grokker. Just enter below. The winner will be announced on October 29th! Not a winner? That’s ok! You can use my promo code 99CENTS for your first month of premium membership for only 99 cents on Grokker.